How is Highlander: The Series?

Cafe Society
1

I’ve only seen the original Highlander movie. I like it quite a bit, actually. It’s aged better than I expected.

I’ve seen funny reviews of 2 and 4(never even seen one second of 3). **I know the sequel movies are awful to the point of nonexistance.
**

I do here positive things from time to time about the show, however.

What are your thoughts? Is the series decent enough to go through? What is good about it? What’s bad? No spoilers, please.

I like:

Buffy
Battlestar
Angel
Firefly
Legend of the Seeker
X-files
Supernatural
Farscape

Basically, I like the fantasy and sci-fi genre. Not a big fan of Star Trek, though.

2

It is enjoyable for what it is.

Over the long run, it kinda got to be annoying in that you’d have a couple of basic plots and there was a bit of hypocricy and disconnect between them;

  1. Bad guy who has a long history with Duncan comes into town or comes chasing after another old friend and Duncan has to go after him.
  2. Long time friend of Duncan is after a bad guy, and Duncan is all indignant over how wrong this is, completely ignoring that he does the exact same thing every moment he isn’t indignant over someone else doing what he does.

Otherwise there were a couple of cool long term or recurring plot ideas, like the immortal kid (hell to be “10 years old” for 400 years), and the stage magician who thought it would be a great boon professionally speaking but couldn’t take it seriously that others would want his head because he was immortal. There’s a rip-off of Die Hard episode (what show didn’t do that?).

3

I liked it as a teenager, enough that I bought all the DVDs when I was old enough to have disposable income. The quality varied quite a bit - there was one episode so bad that the (director? producer? whoever) simply apologizes for its existence on the special features.

Overall, though, there was some quality storytelling, and Adrian Paul wanted SOOOO badly to be taken seriously as an actor that he actually did pretty well. I enjoyed it just because it was the only show on TV that guaranteed you a swordfight every week. I’d say the series is miles ahead of the sequel movies, but it’s no Masterpiece Theater by any stretch of the imagination.

Oh, and be aware that it was made in collaboration with a French company, so midway through every season, Duncan comes up with an excuse, sometimes very thin, to pick up and move from the Pacific Northwest to Paris for a while. And then he moves back to start the next season. It can be confusing if you don’t know why they do it.

Also, like many other shows, it takes a couple of seasons to really get going. The first season, in particular, is shaky and has a lot of elements that were later abandoned, like a cop trying to find the guy responsible for the headless bodies he keeps finding. I think they realized pretty soon that the only way to deal with that issue was to just ignore it.

4

The first season is kind of variable - it ranges from good to atrocious.

The second through sixth are generally very good, although they do pitch a couple duds.

The seventh must be avoided at all costs.

Some guidelines if catching an individual episode on TV…

If Charlie is in it, it may be good, unless he’s the central character, in which case, skip it.

If Richie is in it, and not an Immortal, yet, watch it, but be prepared to roll your eyes.

If it deals with the Watchers, and anyone other than Joe Dawson or Adam Pierson is central, skip it.

If it’s in Paris, watch it. If it’s in Seacouver, then you’ll need to watch for other telltales.

If Methos, Fitz, or Amanda are in it, watch it. If two are more are in it, watch it, and have some extra pants on hand. >_> There is one exception to this - there’s a ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ type episode in the 7th season which features all 3 (plus Richie). It’s the only watchable episode of the season, but it’s not really great.

If anything mystical other than the Immortals themselves comes up, skip it.

If it doesn’t have a recurring mortal character in it, watch it.

If Duncan’s girlfriend is Tessa, you can give it a miss, but probably don’t need to.
If it’s Anne, watch it.
If it’s Amanda…well, it means she’s appearing, doesn’t it?

If the name Ahriman comes up, turn it off, and burn your TV.

5

Oh, yeah, season 7. Don’t watch season 7. It was nothing more than a series of auditions for other people to take over the franchise.

6

Pretty sure there were only 6 seasons. But whatever the last season was, it was pretty bad for the above reason. The first 2 and last 2 episodes are really the only watchable episodes of that season.

Otherwise, I agree with pretty much everything that has already been stated. Season 1 picks up about halfway through. Seasons 2 - 5 are pretty good.

Was Adrian Paul ever considered to play James Bond? He would have been very good.

And, because I’m man enough - in my 20s, Adrian Paul was my same sex crush.

7

Looks like they had a spin-off? Highlander: The Raven??

8

I’m reading a bit about it and am wondering something.

So, they just pretended that the Highlander movie did not end the way it did? Connor did not kill the last immortal and become “the one” that is referenced by “there can be only one”.

I’m cool with that, but do they discuss it at all?

Basically, this is an alternate universe than the movie?

9

It’s been a while, but let me see what I can dig out of long-term memory…

I think in the first season it’s mentioned a few times, but they took the post-movie-sequel idea that the original ending had been reversed somehow, and now there were once again tons of immortals wandering around. Then, like the dead body issue, they quickly realize that that plot hole was getting in the way of doing their show, and completely ignore it from then on out.

Duncan does mention Connor a few times, since they come from the same clan. I think Connor may have even shown up once or twice. I know they met in one of the movies, but my memory is fuzzier about the show.

10

He shows up in the pilot of the series, but I think that’s the only time. I don’t remember how (or if) they explain away the movie’s ending.

11

Yeah, I didn’t hate it. I can’t say it was *good *TV, but I had some fun with it. I don’t know it nearly as well as some of the other reviewers here, so I’ll just say it can be a mildly fun way to waste an hour or two.

12

If I remember correctly, I saw the first episode (or maybe pilot) with Richard Moll (Bull Shannon from Night Court) as a Kurgan like villain. I believe it said that the gathering was still ten years off. So the idea was that the whole series takes place before the movie.
I almost gave up on the series after that because the plot was a rip-off of the movie and the acting and sword fighting was horrible. But it got better.

13

Connor only showed up in the pilot episode, but was mentioned several times throughout the series. Connor’s defeat of Kurgan is mentioned, but the show takes the story as if that was not the final battle.

Oh, make sure you see all the episodes with Roger Daltrey. I thought he and Adrian Paul had great chemistry.

14

Yeah, that was a spin-off of the Amanda character. It wasn’t very good, even by Highlander standards. Fewer swordfights, too, IIRC. Nobody watched it and it was cancelled after one season. Too bad, Elizabeth Gracen (Amanda) was a major hottie (though I much preferred her brunette look to the bleached blonde look she sported in Raven).

15

Was a huge fan of the series in my twenties too. The first seasons set in the US are good but seriously lack an extended plot. It was mostly a “villain of the day” kind of series. When the series moved to Paris, it really picked up. Paris was really well used, they didnt go for the obvious tourist spots, and it really contributed to the “immortals, swordfights and mysteries” concept of Higlander (much much better than any of the movies did). Also there were a lot more recurring plotlines, which showed that the Higlander concept in itself was more suited to a TV series than a string of movies.

If you can bear watching a show like Angel, you should be ok with Higlander.

16

No, I think he showed up again a few times after. At least once that I’m definite about, I know that. I think it was just after Richie got killed that Duncan went off in the woods to live on some Indian holy ground because he didn’t want to kill people anymore.

17

The show aired when I was in high school and it was my favorite show for awhile. About a year ago I bought the whole series off Amazon and started to re-watch it. I gave up half-way through the first season and then I just cherry-picked certain episodes through out the seasons. It does feel like a 90’s tv show and now I think they used music too much. There are some scenes where they played music over the dialogue and it was hard to make out the dialogue.

I don’t know if I would buy it again but I definitely think it’s worthwhile to watch through Netflix or something.

18

I don’t know if he was played by someone else, but Christopher Lambert only is credited for being in the pilot on the IMDB.

Was he re-cast?

19

of course not - there can be only one -

20

Connor didn’t show up in the TV series, except in the pilot.

He was mentioned a few times, and appeared in the comic-book spin-off, and Endgame, which tied in both the movies and TV series, though.